Surfsoft Consulting Blog

Galaxy Nexus ICS 4.0.4 – Regaining su privileges

Phil — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:49:55 +0000

About ten days ago I finally received the OTA update for my Galaxy Nexus that would take it from 4.0.2 to 4.0.4. Of course it didn’t show up at a convenient time despite my numerous checkin requests over the previous two weeks, I was on the motorway, using Google’s Navigation app. Ten minutes later however …

Google I/O 2012 Verdict: Must Do Better.

Phil — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:05:12 +0000

Last year’s Google I/O conference sold out in under 60 minutes. This year, with many more tickets available, it sold out in just 28 (according to my browser) or 20 (if you read Vic Gundotra’s Google+ post here). Google could have sold every ticket at least three times over last year. Or, if you just …

Dear Samsung… you’ll never be Apple

Phil — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:36:26 +0000

Samsung is a company that has successfully renewed itself in recent years. If I want a good quality and feature packed TV I look at Samsung, not Sony. And If I want a good looking, up-to-date Android device then they have some fantastic hardware that performs well and looks good. At Google I/O I got …

The Joy of JSF

Phil — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:03:08 +0000

Android has been taking a back seat recently (although that is about to change) as the new Formula One season looms and I’ve been comprehensively overhauling the fantasy game web site I’ve been running for over ten years, fantasy-f1.net. Last year I spent three months removing the Struts MVC layer, restructuring the underlying code and …

Social Apps on Android

Phil — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:10:53 +0000

At this year’s Devoxx, Google’s Tim Bray gave a thought-provoking keynote which covered several areas but what stood out for me were his comments around writing applications for Android. In summary his message was “give software away and sell a service” and “make it social”. Giving software away and selling a service is a whole …

Android, Grails and Heroku

Phil — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:36:36 +0000

Having published a first Android application Audio Clock in the Android Market my attention has turned to developing something new. Audio Clock was simple but this new application is on a whole other scale. Audio Clock had a minimal UI – in fact just some configuration views and a notification bar entry – and ran in the …

Galaxy Tab 10.1 USB File Transfer Issues Explained

Phil — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 08:40:16 +0000

Having struggled, cursed, been derided by iPad owners and got really irked over the synchronisation issues with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 I have spent some more time in the last few days looking into the problem in more detail. I was prompted to do this by the arrival, over the air, of Android 3.1 – …

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Google I/O Edition) – First Impressions

Phil — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:14:43 +0000

At Google I/O this year I was lucky enough to receive a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, one of the latest Android tablets to ship with Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). However, being a Samsung item it does have its downsides. Samsung for some reason known only to themselves have endowed it with Samsung Kies, a synchronisation utility …

Using Maven for Android Development

Phil — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:12:06 +0000

As a habitual Maven user I’ve got used to the ease with which I can run through a build and test process and get a deployable artefact out at the end of it. I’ve been playing with Android for some time, and now I’m ready to do some serious development it is only natural that …

OS X Account Migration Sleight of Hand

Phil — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 13:16:03 +0000

I recently discovered that my MacBook Pro had developed a fault whereby the DVD drive would read any DVD I cared to insert but would no longer accept blank DVDs. This turned out to be a known issue with certain brands of drive that Apple use, or just dirt on the lens (take your pick …